Gen Z’s entrance into the job market hasn’t been easy. Between an economic slowdown, the disappearance of entry-level jobs thanks to AI, and government policy changes that have affected the number of available positions in sectors like public health and nonprofits, there are fewer and fewer opportunities to get a foot in the door.
However, recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis shows that not all new grads are struggling at the same rate. Gen Z men are facing higher levels of unemployment than their female counterparts.
There may be a number of reasons for this, including the fact that in a few growing corners of the job market, women have long been the more dominant force, Business Insider says.
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Earlier this month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that just 73,000 new jobs had been added in July. The monthly totals for May and June were also revised down by a combined 258,000 new positions.
According to data gathered by the agency, a few of the sectors that have been seeing growth over the last six months include healthcare, hospitality, and education. Traditionally, these fields attract more women than men.
Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told Business Insider that while the trend isn’t new- young men have historically had a higher unemployment rate than young women- the gap is widening.
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“Employers are holding steady with the workers they have, and workers are also holding steady in their roles. That can make it harder for new labor market entrants to come in,” she said. “It could be tougher for men who are looking for jobs where there’s just not a whole lot of hiring right now.”
The flip side of the trend is that industries that primarily employ women tend to have lower pay. Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that median entry-level pay for nursing, a female-dominated industry, is just $65,000, while in computer science, a male-dominated industry, median entry-level pay sits at about $80,000.
“If you can do something about or improve working conditions and pay and benefits in sectors that may have been traditionally female-dominated, then you may attract more men into those occupations,” Gould told Business Insider. “I don’t think it’s rocket science that we have undervalued some of the work that we have historically done.”
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